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win-98 boot failure

kaman5066

Posted 09 May 2005 - 04:37 PM

kaman5066

New Member

Member

3 posts

Hi, .... help! I realize the obvious answer is to just buy a new computer,
but I really can't.... All of a sudden my pc wont boot? I've tried it with the startup disk (win98) in the floppy and the bios is set to read A then CD-ROM then C. It starts to read it then stops, and ALWAYS hangs up at the same point , right as it says "verifying DMI pool data" whatever that is?
I can get into the bios setup if that helps. And I tried to boot from my cd-rom but with the same results. Can anyone help please?

Thanks Bob

Edited by kaman5066, 09 May 2005 - 04:38 PM.

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Samm

Posted 09 May 2005 - 04:46 PM

Samm

Trusted Tech

Member

3,476 posts

Try removing any pci cards you have in the system. Clear the bios using the Clear CMOS jumper on the motherboard. If you don't know how to do that & you don't have the motherboard manual to find it out, then go into the bios & load fail-safe or default settings for everything.
Depending on your bios, this option should be on the menu screen (if there is one) or on each individual screen/section otherwise.

Try & boot up the system again (change the boot order in the bios if necessary to floppy, CD, IDE 0) .Let me know what happens before we go any further.

kaman5066

Posted 12 May 2005 - 09:57 AM

kaman5066

New Member

Topic Starter

Member

3 posts

Thank you for the help. But so far no difference...
I cleared the bios using the jumper (found THAT using the old trial and error method) I changed the boot order to "A" - "D" then "C" too.
It wants to read my floppy on most boot attempts but then screen goes to that DMI pool data thing and everything stops still? on a few occasions though it says that I have a "non-systems disk" in the "A" drive. I've used at least 4 different win-98 start up disks in it though, I can't believe they're all bad,
... but who knows.

anyway, thanks for taking the time to try, its appreciated
really.
Bob

p.s. I also removed my PCI cards as you suggested
(except for video card which is PCI)

Samm

Posted 12 May 2005 - 04:17 PM

You may have a faulty floppy drive in that case. If possible, test the floppy drive & its cable on another system. At least they are a lot cheaper to replace than the entire computer!

The only other thing you could try, is disconnect all the hard drive & CDROM drive cables from the motherboard & disconnect the power from the drives. Then see if the machine wil boot. Altenatively, if you have a bootable CD, try booting from that.

kaman5066

Posted 13 May 2005 - 05:07 PM

kaman5066

New Member

Topic Starter

Member

3 posts

Ok I'll try those options in an hour (when I get off work and go home) I have a few different floppy drives and cables I can try too.
I'll do all the diconnecting and booting you advised too. Thanks again (really) Bob